Sandra Phillips recently moved her new gallery to the Golden Triangle neighborhood.

Phillips' new 1,500-square-foot art-gallery space is located on a corner and full of light and windows, allowing a view inside. The Golden Triangle neighborhood is evolving into a mature arts district.

Left, Sandra Phillips works at her art gallery. She established her reputation in the Santa Fe Arts District.

Left, Phillips represents Denver stalwarts like Frank Sampson, who paints large and elegant landscapes, and artists who are still developing their reputation, such as Margaret Kasahara, who uses Japanese pop imagery in her work, above.

When Sandra Phillips was scouting a new home for her esteemed Denver gallery, the wish list included one thing in short supply in the cramped Santa Fe Arts District she helped establish a decade ago: sidewalks.

She found them not too far away, at the corner of West 12th Avenue and Elati Street. There were a few other bonuses at her new location in the leisurely, laid-out Golden Triangle neighborhood, like trees, sunlight, ample parking

And best of all: a different set of neighbors. In the past few years, the area has evolved to include several galleries that sell the high level of contemporary art — pricey, tasteful and important — that the Sandra Phillips Gallery built its reputation on.

“I feel like a lot is possible for me here,” said Phillips.

For her peers, too. With Phillips’ arrival, the galleries are talking about coordinating opening-night receptions, drawing bigger crowds, thinking of the Golden Triangle as a genuine arts district itself.

The timing seems right. The city’s museum district just next door, has leaped forward lately with the arrival of the Clyfford Still Museum and the History Colorado Center. The area is more polished and arty overall.

The Golden Triangle — always, but never quite, Denver’s next big neighborhood — seems to be finally making progress as well, as the economy moves forward. More interesting restaurants have popped up, like the swank Charcoal and the youthful Rooster and Moon Coffee Pub. A design-friendly, 19-story apartment building is on its way to the corner of West 13th Avenue and Cherokee Street.

“I think we could generate more traffic down here easily,” said William Havu, one of Denver’s most respected art dealers. His William Havu Gallery is a stalwart of the area, and he’s game for the idea of branding the Golden Triangle as a destination for the sort of art fan who comes out on a Friday night for gallery adventures.

That kind of thinking makes sense, and not just from a marketing perspective. The galleries share an aesthetic that mixes a crisp, white-cube persona born in New York with the casual details of their historic low-density blocks.

These galleries are an important link in the cultural chain here, connecting hard-working artists to the high-end buyers who keep their mortgages paid. These dealers aren’t above matching a painting to a fabric swatch, but they do it with dignity and knowledge. They push taste levels higher for an entire city.

The Golden Triangle galleries also are commonly driven by strong, likable personalities who are known about town. Downtown has its Denver standard bearers like Jim Robischon and Robin Rule with their namesake galleries, but the Golden Triangle has Bobbi Walker at Walker Fine Art and Tina Goodwin at Goodwin Fine Art.

And now it has Sandra Phillips, whose 1,500-square-foot gallery arrives with wood floors, clean walls and its own character.

Phillips is a former full-time college professor who started her business in Aspen, and those two experiences influence her wares. She’s a champion of Colorado artists and favors painters who also teach because she believes they are driven more by personal artistic progress and less by assembling shows that will sell.

That said, her artists sell. She represents distinguished institutions of the local scene. She closed her Santa Fe gallery in June with work from Mel Strawn, a 50-year veteran abstractionist, and opened anew last month with 84-year-old Frank Sampson, who taught for three decades at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Both exhibits were interesting, important even, because they showed Colorado artists who continue to work late into their careers. Sampson’s large, acrylic works, which remain up until December 1, are compelling not because he still picks up a paintbrush, but because he continues to evolve, adding mystical layers to his sweeping landscapes. These are familiar paintings, but they hold pleasant surprises.

At the other end of Phillips’ roster are the colorful oils of Margaret Kasahara, a developing star who gives a Western twist to Japanese pop imagery.

“A gallery is really a container for art,” said Phillips. “It’s the artists who give it vitality.”

In the same way, the Sandra Phillips Gallery adds life to the Golden Triangle. Drivers heading along Speer Boulevard can actually get a glimpse into her space, making it a visual connection between the side streets and the busy thoroughfare.

The neighborhood, once again, is positioned for a boom. If that happens, a booming arts district could be part of the equation.

“We will we add more galleries slowly, but I do think that will happen,” said Havu. “Of course, it will be more costly for the next round to come in.”